Uruguay is just a short hop over the River Plate from Buenos Aires, and our first stop is the UNESCO registered Colonia Del Sacramento. The boat ride over is pretty uneventful apart from the fact we're feeling a little under the weather having to get up at the ungodly hour of 700am, after a final night in Buenos Aires on the red wine and steak. Fortunately Uruguay is home to a good few gauchos, so we're hoping that we're not leaving the prime steak behind for too long...
Colonia is a cute little place - all cobbled streets and coloured houses and a very touristy vibe. Its a nice place to hang out, so we decide to book in for a couple of days as we've found a cute little hostel that is really comfortable. And the sun is shining, which makes everything seem better. Its a tiny place with not a lot else to do but wander around watching a chap flying his kite by the port and hanging out. So thats what we do.
We're back on the bus to Montevideo on Saturday morning, fully refreshed from two nights good sleep in the Hostel El Viajero in Colonia. Its only a couple of hours along the motorway so we get there in time for lunch. Recommended in our guide book is the market, so we head for one of our favourite lunches of the whole trip. The market is buzzing full of Uruguyans out for lunch. On all sides are enormous BBQs full of sizzling meat, so we pull up a chair at the bar and order away. Its great theatre watching the butcher chopping up great sides of beef and throwing them onto the grill, and it tastes great too. Meanwhile there's music drumming and dancing to a Brazilian salsa beat going on all around. Its a great place that we really enjoy, and would recommend to everyone for an afternoon. Not content with 2 bottles of wine, once we find another bar with 3 drummers, a couple of guitars and a sax playing outside, we grab a seat and a bottle of Patricia, a pretty decent beer and hang out for the rest of the afternoon, enjoying the music, and starting to make a few Uruguayan friends. Eventually once the band is finished playing we head off to another bar with a group including Germans and Canadians and meet up with some local filmmakers, who had a film in Cannes last year, and then we dont remember very much until the next morning with a very bad head.
COuldnt really manage very much on Sunday apart from heading out for some lunch, which would have been great if we had been feeling great, and a stroll around town, which is all closed down as its Sunday. In the central square though we find a big exhibition of these bears, each one designed to represent a country of the world. They're about 6ft tall, and quite unique. Its the second time that we have seen them though. Last time back in Berlin a good few years ago.
Still a little under the weather on Monday, we find our way on the bus to Punta Del Este, getting closer and closer to Brazil. Its a proper seaside resort, that in the summer would be buzzing but in rainy Autumn, its dead. After stopping off for lunch and sheltering from the rain all we can do is head back home and wait for the rain to stop. It doesnt. Even the next day it rains pretty much endlessly, stopping just long enough to let us go out for a stroll around, with the obligatory dogs accompanying us. Not a huge amount to report back apart from the good news from other Ozzie and Yankie travellers is that they have to pay about US$150 for their Brazilian visas, as well as having to pay for Chilean and Bolivian, whereas us Brits are welcomed in with open arms. I like to think its because the Brits introduced football to the region, whereas the Yanks brought McDonalds, and the Aussies are also yet to do anything of note.
So all in all Uruguay is a pretty cool country. We kinda got a bit over it towards the end of our week in Punta del Este, which with a bit of sun would be great to hang out in. Otherwise, its not. Colonia and Montevideo are great places to hang out in for a couple of days. Anyhow, next stop Brazil on a rather expensive overnight bus.
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